Parenting Tips by Jean Tracy, MSS, for grades K-6:

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Building character in kids can be confusing. Have you ever wondered if your children are developing moral attitudes? Let's look at some great attitudes to instill for building character.

Parenting Skills ??? Today's agenda for Building Character:

• In my last post, we discussed the 4 secret parenting strategies to use with moral dilemmas.
• Today we'll discuss the 5 key attitudes to encourage in your children.
• We'll also offer practical questions for developing the 5 key attitudes.

Character Building ??? The 5 key attitudes to develop in your children when using moral dilemmas:

• Empathy
• Role-taking
• Social Awareness
• Self-reflection
• Good advice giving.

Parenting Skills ??? Character building questions for developing the 5 key attitudes:

1. Character Building with Empathy ??? Empathy understands and feels the thoughts and feelings of another. Teaching your kids empathy is not difficult. When your child tells you about an incident at school in which another child was bullied or treated badly ask, "How would you feel if that happened to you? Or you might ask, "How do you think the victim felt?" Helping your child to understand the thoughts and feelings of others, teaches them empathy and helps build character too.

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2. Character Building with Role-Taking ??? Role-taking is related to empathy. Help your child step into the shoes of another with questions. Then act out both sides of an incident. "Why do you think the bully acted the way he did?" Act out being the bully. "Why do you think the victim acted the way he did?" Role-play the incident. Role-playing helps your child see both sides clearly.

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3. Character Building with Social Awareness ??? Social awareness is closely related to empathy and role-taking. Social awareness is the understanding of what most kids think about bullying, hurting others or any painful problem another child may experience. A good question to ask is, "How do most kids think about being mean to others?"

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4. Character Building with Self-Reflection ??? Self-reflection helps kids look at their own behavior. Asking "Have you ever treated other kids badly? What happened? How did you feel about yourself?" helps your child pay attention to his deeper thoughts and feelings. Here's another question for self-reflection. "If you could do it over, what would you do differently?" When kids self-reflect and see how they can improve their own behavior, they are one step closer to building character.

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5. Character Building with Good Advice Giving ??? Asking your children, "What advice would you give to the bully? What advice would you give to the victim?" helps them solve problems and come up with solutions. When they're faced with similar difficulties, they'll be more likely to follow their own advice.

There you have it, 5 key attitudes with character building questions. Try them and let me know the results. I'm interested in your opinions.

Our next post will discuss a specific moral dilemma and how to easily use the character building questions.

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If you're wondering where to find moral dilemmas for your family discussions, treat your family to our Dilemma Discussion Kit with its 51 dilemmas. Don't wait. The time to build character is now.